This is an anime adaptation of a Steam game where you dispatch hordes of zombies by removing their clothing. Is that a ridiculous enough premise for the show to be entertaining despite the preceding adaptation of a Steam game bit? Not exactly or at least not by itself but AkibaS Trip has enough to keep you chuckling if youre a part of the right demographic. The show follows a monsteroftheweek type format with our lovably ridiculous cast of tropes fighting a new enemy set in a differing realm of otakudom. One week its audiophiles and idols the next its r/pcmasterrace then Akiba maid culture and continuing with a new shtick each week. This will either help keep you interested or cause you to want to drop the show all together because our cast of characters are largely boring and predictable. Otakuturnedhero tsundere love interest imouto ditzybutgenius loli professor... its all here along with a set of equally tired villains side characters and plot contrivances. They hinge on the edge of being parody but Ill leave that up to you to decide. Its worth noting that this show is even more of an advertisement than anime normally is. Companies and products are literally shouted out and endorsed by characters. Hell there is an entire episode dedicated to Street Fighter V and the characters openly endorse Carls Jr. hamburgers. Advertisements like these in TV shows and games can be done well or incredibly poorly but the shows medium of anime comedy lets it play it off pretty damn well. Above all else AkibaS Trip is crazy and random so the endorsements dont end up feeling that out of place and have a good bit of thought put into their gags. The Street Fighter episode in particular went pretty far to be an accurate parody of a tournament and even cameod numerous Japanese and American FGC players. Unfortunately its painfully obvious that Studio Gonzo needed every penny it could scrounge from those advertisements to make this show. The visual quality of the show is just absolutely downright terrible. The animation literally melts together and the still frames are nothing to look at. Character designs are uninspired obviously not being designed with animation in mind lifted from the game. Theres also a ton of hamfisted fanservice that fails to even achieve its purpose due to poor animation and art. The only time the show looked alright was the first episode notably the first fight and then it was straight downhill from there. Music is also forgettable to downright bad outside of one or two hype tracks. VA is... actually consistently funny and a joy to listen to and you can tell that the voice actors and actresses had a great time recording this ridiculous show. The simulcast dub also seems to have been made with fun in mind giving off a subtle Ghost Stories sort of vibe and is worth checking out since youre going to be picking this show up for a quick laugh if you end up picking it up at all. Overall AkibaS Trip can be a fun romp if youre not expecting too much out of it other than a couple clever pop culture jokes and stabs at otakus. Its by no means a pinnacle of comedy or parody within anime but its a good look for some laughs or a group watch even if some of the laughs are from unintended sources. If I could compare it to anything it would be that its kind of like discount BenTo.
60 /100
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